Tough Lessons
by prettylittleravenclaw
Summary: Bubbles storms off after another fight with Buttercup. What happens when she's captured by our favorite Rowdyruff Boys? One-shot, sibling bonding/friendship fic. DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but the plot.


"Buttercup, stop it!" Bubbles whined. "Give me back my Octi!"  
"_Make_ me, Bubble-brain," her sister challenged her, and flew off, smiling mischievously.  
Bubbles flew off after her, nearly in tears. "Buttercup this isn't funny! Give him back now! You know how much he means to me."  
"Na-na-na-na-na, you can't catch me!" Buttercup darted left and right to avoid her sister's swipes at her stuffed octopus before taking a zig zag route back to their house. She quickly stuffed it under the bed and plopped down on her spot right before Bubbles entered.  
"Can I have it now?" she asked in a small voice.  
Her sister snickered. "Sure…if you can find it."  
"Professor!" Bubbles screeched.  
"Yes?" he called from his lab.  
"Buttercup won't give me back my Octi!"  
_Oh, this is too much fun,_ Buttercup thought gleefully. "I think she misplaced it somewhere, Professor," she called.  
"Did she really? Well then, I'm sure it's just around there somewhere, Bubbles. It's not like Octi can grow legs and walk off," the Professor chuckled.  
Bubbles glared angrily at Buttercup. "Give…him…_back_!" Her eyes watered.  
"Oh, so you're going to cry on me? Crying isn't going to get you your little stuffed toy back," Buttercup said. "Geez, Blossom's right, you're such a baby! When something doesn't go your way, you just run crying to the Professor…"  
"That's not true!"  
"Oh you know it is, Bubs," she smirked. "You just go crying to the Professor and everything is A-OK. What are you gonna do when he's not around anymore, huh? _Huh?"_  
Buttercup watched as her sister began sobbing. "I hate you, Buttercup," she said quietly through her tears, and floated over to the window.

"What, so you're going to just run away?" Buttercup called after her. "You really _are_ a baby."

* * *

Bubbles flew as fast and far away as she could, until she was tired and could fly no more. She landed in a dark forest about a mile south of Townsville. She settled on a log in the center of what seemed to be a glade full of birds singing and animals playing.

"Aww, aren't you all cute?" she cooed, and started petting a little bunny softly. She giggled as it nuzzled into her knee and some bluebirds landed onto her shoulder. She picked it up and cuddled it the way she cuddled Octi.

"Well, well, well, right into our trap," a menacing voice taunted from over her shoulder. She turned to look straight into the gaze of Brick, the leader of the Rowdyruff Boys.

"Score!" Butch, the green one, high-fived Brick. "Boomer, get the rope."

"Why can't we just bring her back ourselves?" he said. "It's three against one. She doesn't stand a chance."

At those words, Bubbles began to shake in both fear and anger, ready to strike her counterpart. Butch saw this and slammed her as hard as he could into the ground. Bubbles whimpered. "Brick, get me the rope."

"No, Boomer's right, she can't escape us when she's outnumbered," Brick said. "Let's go."

* * *

Meanwhile, Buttercup was playing with her race track in their room when Blossom came in. "Buttercup, where's Bubbles? She's been gone for over three hours."

"I dunno," she shrugged, not looking at her sister.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I. Don't. Know," Buttercup said impatiently. "I really don't. She just took off."

Blossom glared at her sister. "What did you do this time?"

"I only teased her a bit, and she took it too seriously, same as always," Buttercup shrugged again.

Her sister sighed. "You take it too far sometimes. You know that, right?"

"Nah," she shook her head.

Blossom crossed her arms, scowling.

"Okay, okay, maybe sometimes I overdo it, but Bubbles thinks she can cry her way out and get someone to fix things for her," Buttercup threw her hands up in the air. "She's nothing but a stinkin' pushover!"

"Not that I don't agree with you, but she'll learn," Blossom said.

"Not if someone doesn't teach her," Buttercup contradicted her fiercely.

_Beep, beep, beep!_ The red lightbulb on their hotline flashed. Blossom was first to the phone.

"Blossom Utonium, how may I help you today?"

"Hello Blossom," Brick's voice rasped over the phone.

"What do you want?" she went from cheerful to angry in less than a split second.

"We have something that you want," he said. "Or should I say…some_one_."

"You give her back this _instant,_ you jerks!"

"Aww, you think whining and yelling at us is going to make us give her back?" he taunted her, smiling evilly.

"You are _so immature_!"

"Nothing we haven't heard before," he shrugged. "Ah well, I better light the match now…later…" He hung up.

"What's up?" Buttercup looked up from her toy cars.

"The Rowdyruff Boys have Bubbles," Blossom fumed.

"They _what_?"

"I'm going to go get her," Blossom pushed the window open.

"No," Buttercup stopped her. "I'll do it."

"Buttercup, you can't handle them all by yourself…"

"It's my fault she left in the first place," she replied fiercely. "I'm going."

* * *

"You're not really going to do it, are you?" Bubbles whimpered from her chair that she was tightly bound to.

"What do you think, Bubble-brain?" Butch said.

"Oh no, not you too!" she started crying again.

"Can someone make her shut up?" Brick called from the floor where he was playing his PlayStation.

"Why did we bring here, anyway, if we're not going to kill her?" Boomer asked.

"To capture the rest of them and bring them to HIM, stupid," he shook his head.

"But how are we going to get the rest of them?"

"It's a _trap_, dummy."

"Geez, I'm not _stupid._"

"Yeah, you kind of are. In the meantime, she sure does make a great punching bag," Butch smiled maliciously, and raised his fist, ready to punch her.

"Give it up, Butch!" a rough voice commanded.

The green Rowdyruff Boy turned to see his counterpart hovering above him, ready to strike.

"Oh hey Buttercup, nice of you to join us," he continued smiling. "Wanna play?"

"If you want to hurt my sister, you're going to have to go through me, first," Buttercup cut the ropes with her laser beams.

"And me," Bubbles got up and flew by her sister.

The Rowdyruff Boys laughed at them. "I thought you girls were smarter," Brick shook his head. "We were supposed to capture you all and bring you to HIM, but since it's just the two of you," he looked to his brothers, "We can't. It was all of you, or none of you."

"You're bluffing," Buttercup accused.

"Nope," Boomer shook his head.

"Since when do the Rowdyruff Boys just let us go like this without a fight?" Buttercup glared at them.

"Let's just say we're being….what's the word? Oh yeah, _nice_," Brick said. "Boomer over here couldn't take the little blondie crying the whole time over how much she missed her octopus or whatever."

"Hey!" Bubbles finally spoke. "It has a name, you know! It's Octi."

"You better go before we change our minds," Brick warned. "And we _will _get you all next time."

"You'll try," Bubbles gave her the meanest glare she could muster.

* * *

The two Powerpuffs flew in silence all the way back until they flew gracefully through their bedroom window.

"Bubbles! Thank goodness you're okay!" Blossom gave her sister a hug. "We were so worried you'd been killed." She looked at her two sisters, who stood next to each other awkwardly. "It seems like you two have some issues to work through, so I'll leave you two alone for awhile." She left their room and went downstairs to see if the Professor needed any help with an experiment.

Bubbles sat on her side of the bed with her arms wrapped around her knees while Buttercup just stood there awkwardly.

"I can't believe you did that for me," Bubbles whispered quietly. "I thought you hated me."

"What?" Buttercup looked at her incredulously. "You might get on my nerves, but I could never hate you."

"Then why are you so mean to me?" she asked.

"To teach you a lesson," her sister answered. "To teach you to stand up for yourself and not be some helpless little girl who just cries for help when things go wrong." She paused. "Although I think I overdo it sometimes."

Bubbles got up and gave her sister a hug. "I'm sorry I said I hated you earlier," she sobbed. "I was just so mad. I know you don't mean to be like that."

"I'm…I'm sorry too, Bubbles," Buttercup returned her hug. "I shouldn't have taken it that far. Otherwise you never would've had to deal with those stupid boys."

"Well, it was kind of fun," she said thoughtfully. "Boomer's kinda cute."

"Let's not go there," Buttercup stopped her and reached under the bed to retrieve the purple stuffed octopus. "Here you go."

Bubbles' face lit up. "Octi!" She gave her sister another bonecrushing hug. "Thank you so much, Buttercup."

"Hey, you earned it," Buttercup shrugged.

* * *

I wanted to write one of these because I didn't think there were enough sibling bonding fics, and I figured Bubbles and Buttercup would have the best bonding moments because they are such opposites! Hope you liked it!


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